


Scales and Sore Spots

by Cân Cennau (cancennau)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Fluff, Grooming, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other, Shedding, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 16:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7851733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cancennau/pseuds/C%C3%A2n%20Cennau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cardassians shed their scales every other month. Elim hates it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scales and Sore Spots

A Cardassian shed happened bi-monthly, and Elim had hated it ever since he had his first one. It was three days of messed bed sheets, over sensitive scales and haywire hormones, which made Elim grumpy, overtired and out of action for at least a day, if not more. And now, since sharing a life with Kelas, their sheds had crept closer and closer together until they now happened simultaneously - meaning double the scale, and double the side effects.

And of course, that wasn't to mention the infernal _itching_.

Elim wriggled frustratedly against his bedclothes, which were already decorated with scattered silver scales. The itching was the worst part. The scales caught and tugged on every fabric type, making dressing irritating, and sleeping even more so. Elim supposed he could probably handle the fatigue, the crankiness and the clinginess his shed brought out in him if the scales didn't itch so bad. He sighed and turned on his side, facing his partner Kelas, who was watching him with one eye cracked open.

“Your back scales loose?” they asked, yawning a little.

“Mmm.” Elim replied, shifting a little. “And my shoulders, and my arms - I can't lie comfortably. I don't suppose we have any _Iro_ left?”

“No - we used the last of it last shed, and Rokka’s shop’s been sold out of it all week.”

Elim made a disgusted sound and flopped down on his back again, cursing Rokka’s lack of stock with a wince. Kelas reached out and rubbed the dome of Elim’s stomach in a comforting gesture.

“I know, it’s not comfortable.” they murmured. “Of course, I can see if I can find some _msitzo_ …”

 _msitzo_ was a weedy, astringent plant that felt, smelt and looked terrible. The shudder that went through Elim at the mention of the plant was enough for Kelas to retract their offer.

“Alright, no _msitzo_ …” they chuckled. “Walking should help loosen them - we should get up soon.”

The only reply that got was another disgusted sound, and Kelas shook their head.

“You lazy old dragon.” they said fondly. “Come on - up you get…”

Kelas pressed a kiss to Elim's middle age paunch before they sat up, their own broad body silhouetted in the morning light. They stretched upwards, wincing a little, and then leant forward and shook their hair out. Elim watched as crushed cardassian scales fell out of the gunmetal strands in a shower of silver. Kelas frowned, and picked at a rather clingy scale hanging on the end of their forelock braid.

"Attractive.” Elim murmured sardonically, and was rewarded with an eye roll.

“Hush, you.” Kelas replied, good natured as always. “A bath will sort this out, I think. Join me?”

Elim ‘hmmed’ and rolled over onto his stomach, relieving the itching of his back scales somewhat. “Perhaps in a while.”

“Don’t be too long - or the water will get cold.”

Elim did get out of bed in a few minutes - there really was only so long you could lie in the shed scales of two older Cardassians before it got a little grim. With a sigh, he got up and bundled the bed sheet into the recycler, before heading into the bathroom.

The bath they had wasn’t fancy - Kelas had found the large tin tub out in the rubble, and they had both patched it up so that it held water. The water still had to be pumped from the replicator in the kitchen though, hence the rather fat hose that snaked down the corridor, that Elim kicked out of his way on his way in.

Kelas didn’t seem to notice him enter, with their head under the water and their hair a halo around their face, but they did notice Elim climbing in behind them, and the sloshing of the water as two strong arms pulled Kelas backwards into Elim’s lap.

“Elim!" Kelas squawked, sputtering a little from the water. “I was trying to bathe!”

“And what a good job you were doing.” Elim pressed a kiss to the back of Kelas’ neck. “You’ve been bathing so long the water’s gone cold.”

“I did warn you. And the water’s still warm. It’s only cold on your old scales - it’ll burn your new ones if we have it any hotter.”

"Hmm." Elim tightened his hold on the other Cardassian, and Kelas squirmed in his grip.

"May I go back to bathing now?" they asked pointedly.

“In a minute - I still need warming.” Elim replied, dropping kisses on Kelas' neckridge. Kelas sighed, and let his head fall back on Elim’s chest with a wet thud.

“Are you going to be this irritating all day?” he huffed, frowning upside-down at him. Elim smiled back innocentlyA.

“Me, irritating?” I don’t know what you mean.”

Kelas made an exasperated sound, smiled affectionately at him, nuzzled a little at Elim's soft chest, before reaching out and grabbing a scale brush from the floor near the bath.

“Since I can't do it, here’s a _mitzan_ \- do my shoulders, would you?”

Kelas was right, as they usually were in these matters - between brushing the scales and them falling off as he moved, the water had simultaneously become too cold for his old scales and too warm for his new ones. Kelas left him to finish his bath alone after tiring of his constant uncomfortable shifting, much to Elim’s dismay. Once he’d dried off and put on a dressing gown, Elim later found them padding naked around the kitchen, and he spent some time watching the other Cardassian, open and close various cupboards, evidently looking for something.

“Have you seen the Delavian chocolates we had from Julian?” they asked, their head deep in a drawer. “I rather fancied one.”

“Up here.” Elim came up close behind them, and reached up to one of the higher cupboards, knocking down the small silver box. Kelas caught it and smiled at him, before cracking the seal and popping one of the chocolate squares into their mouth.

“Mmm, thank you.” they said, before proffering the box. “One for you?”

“Why, thank you.” Elim took a chocolate from the box and ate it, savouring the sweet chocolate and the tart fruit centre. “I’m surprised you didn’t check the top cupboard for them. It’s where they normally are.”

Kelas looked a little rueful at that. “My new scales are a touch stiff.” they admitted, rolling one of their shoulders. “And sore. Didn’t fancy climbing onto those counters.”

Elim automatically reached out and stroked Kelas’ shoulder, noting how his partner leaned heavily into the touch. “You should be back in bed, resting,” Elim murmured. “You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

“I’ll be fine,” Kelas patted the hand on their shoulder. “I need to be up and about. Need to get something to eat besides chocolate.”

“The chocolate is there for eating.”

“Yes, but not for breakfast. We need something healthier. Nutritious.”

“Mmhmm.”

“...That was the most unconvincing agreement I’ve ever heard.”

Elim laughed, lightly looping his arms around Kelas’ neck. “I’m sorry, my dear,” he murmured into his partner’s hair. “As nice as a good breakfast sounds, I’m just not feeling up to it today. And I know you’re not either.”

“Hmm…” Kelas leant against him, warm and sturdy. “What do you have in mind?”

“Perhaps Delavian chocolates, pastries if the replicator is kind to us today, warm mugs of sweetened coffee - with cream and _nes’il_ syrup, I know how you like it-”

“Feeling decadent today?”

“A little. And then we go back to bed to enjoy it, and that is where we’ll stay for the rest of the day.”

“Back to bed?” Kelas gave him an exasperated look. “But we’ve only just got up!”

“And I’m still not convinced that it was a good idea.”

Kelas sighed, and laughed a little as Elim tightened his hold on them, pressing a kiss to the tip of their ear ridge. “Truly, what will we do in bed all day?”

“Sleep, perhaps? Or read - I’m certain you haven’t finished _Adeline_ yet-”

“I’m taking my time with it.”

“I’m expecting a good bicker with you about it later.”

“Flirt.”

"Guilty as charged. Of course, we can turn the radio on too, or play that Vic Fontaine record Julian left us-”

“I dont know what to expect from that - what did Julian call Fontaine? A ‘crooner’?”

“He’s rather good. He in fact has a song for something you could do in bed-”

“Does he really?”

“He does - now how did it go? _Stars shining right above you-_ ”

“A little inaccurate, since it’s morning.”

“ _Night breezes seem to whisper ‘I love you’-”_

“That's very romantic, but- wait, are you rocking me?”

“ _Birds singing in the sycamore tree-_ ”

“Elim.”

_“Dream a little dream of me…”_

With the fondest of smiles, Kelas turned and kissed him to silence. Elim let him, letting their mouths meet in a well-practiced dance, tasting the sweet-tart taste of the chocolates and the warmth of Kelas’ mouth. The distant sounds of the ever present workers in Kardasi’or rumbled in the background, but Elim was happy to stand in his kitchen, kissing the Cardassian he loved and letting the city roll on without him for a few moments.

“You flirtatious old dragon.” Kelas murmured as they broke apart. “Why would I dream of you when I already have you here?”

Elim let their foreheads fall together in _answar_ , smiled, but didn’t reply.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Scales and Sore Spots](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7948075) by [Cân Cennau (cancennau)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cancennau/pseuds/C%C3%A2n%20Cennau)




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